Death Penalty Does Not Prevent Capital Crimes

Our judicial system needs some radical changes in keeping career criminals out of our lives, but the death penalty may only be stimulating a Charles Manson to the ultimate thrill. Fear of penalties work only for people with a social conscience.

When “in the name of the people” we take a life via the death penalty we dehumanize us all--just as the killer did. Killing as a lesson that “thou shall not kill” really doesn’t convey a very clear message.

We live in the most violent nation on earth. Other nations without the death penalty experience only a few dozen murders a year. We had more than 24,000 murders last year.

Violence does in fact incite violence. If we were to execute one a day the excitement and the debasement of human life might well arouse more murders, not less.

History tells us that when chopping off hands didn’t stop theft the Roman Senate decreed the death penalty. Executions for theft were conducted weekly in the main public square. But the crowd-pleaser had to be stopped--it was attracting too many pickpockets.

The death penalty has never been a deterrent, it’s just revenge. There is a Genghis Khan in all of us with the urge to kill ‘em, but raw animal response isn’t the stuff that civilizations are made of.

The macho-chauvinist politicians who whip up our anger and frustrations over our violent society are poor excuses for statesmen. Their cry for death--and votes--although emotionally satisfying, is not the path to a stable society. Getting tough on crime should mean doing something to reduce it.

J.C. BERNARD

Hemet